A Message From Mel 🙋🏻♀️
📣This month we announced the appointment of our Cofounder Daniel Petre as AirTree’s inaugural Chair. In the role Daniel will be spending more time championing for our industry, mentoring founders and encouraging the new wealthy to get involved in philanthropy. We can’t wait for the impact he will make as our Chair — watch this space! 👀💕
We also welcomed Gill Findlay as our Operating Partner. 👏 🥳
Gill was the COO of SafetyCulture and the CEO of Vamp, and she’ll be helping AirTree portfolio founders & teams reach their growth goals faster. Get to know Gill better here.
For our Open Source VC meetup this month, I chatted about US market entry, pitching to US VC funds and hiring US talent and advisors with Bethany Crystal, VP of Portfolio Partnerships & Community at US-based executive talent marketplace Bolster, and former GM of Network at Union Square Ventures. Check out the replay here, and download the ebook on building up a startup board of directors here.
Finally, we are hiring (again)! We’re looking for 4 superstars to join our Finance & Ops team in the following roles: Management Accountant, Accounts Payable Officer, Investor Relations (Mat-Leave Cover), and Business Operations Analyst. More info here — please help us spread the word. 🙌
The Big News
🥗We’re thrilled to welcome Kim, Adrian, Kerry, Andrei and the team at Mr Yum to the AirTree Fam! Mr Yum is the perfect example of founders spotting opportunities to slingshot out of COVID and we can’t wait to support the team as they take on international expansion.
💬A a huge welcome also goes to Sally and the team at Arli! We’re so proud of the work the team is doing for those suffering from addiction via their ‘virtual support group’ recovery platform.
💪Congratulations to Dr. Ben Coorey and team Archistar for their record year of growth and completing their $6m round!
💰Fantastic news for deep tech innovators who’ll have more funding options! Our friends at Main Sequence have launched a new $250M AUD fund backed by Horizon Ventures, Hostplus, Temasek and more.
🚀Kudos for another milestone for Mel, Cliff & Cam at Canva as they announce US$500m in turnover last year and AU$91m round of funding, valuing the company at $19.7B.
🎉Absolute phenomenal news and massive congratulations to Paul, Sonia and the team at Octopus Deploy for closing one of the biggest funding rounds in Aus startup history at $US172.5m ($AU221M)!
🥝Woohoo, the trans-Tasman travel bubble with our Kiwi friends is here! Time to book some flights. ✈️ Official info for Aussies here and Kiwis here.
Topics That Caught Our Eye 👀
🧬 How mRNA Technology could change the world: the mRNA vaccine is playing a crucial role in our fight against COVID. It took 40 years and the tireless work of many for the technology to get where it is today and it will have an even bigger impact far beyond this pandemic for all kinds of diseases, including cancer, malaria & multiple sclerosis. What a revolutionary time for biotech, we for one can’t wait to get the jab! 🙋🏻♀️ 💉
🔧 How to build a stellar PM team: Our friends at PointNine published a detailed guide that answers questions like: when & how to hire your first PM? What’s the ideal PM to Engineers ratio? How to transition out of founder-led product management? How to efficiently collect feedback from customer-facing teams?
📉 Axios released an exclusive report that confirms what many of us have suspected: public trust in the technology sector has cratered in the past few 2 years, with the decline further deepening in 2021. Notably, trust in AI and IoT companies fell in 25 out of 27 countries surveyed. As a roadmap for restoring trust, tech CEO’s are being urged to ‘lead on issues from responsible AI and automation to upskilling. Act first, talk after.’ And speaking of…👇
🤖 Dangers of AI language systems: Advances in AI capabilities mean that soon, we may see applications of advanced language systems (such as GPT-3) used in many diverse and important settings in society. This could have dangerous consequences if the language system we design does not do what we intend it to do. For example, AI may produce harmful content, game misspecified objectives, or produce deceptive and manipulative language. This paper by Deepmind explores the issues that can arise and reviews some approaches for avoiding them.
⛓ April has been a particularly eventful month in the world of crypto. Last week was ‘Blockchain Week’ in Australia, and the week before, Coinbase IPO’ed. If you want an efficient way to dive deep into the rabbit hole, a16z’s ‘Crypto Canon’ is one of our favourite explainer resources that covers everything from beginner guides to the latest emerging hot topics.
🧐 Frenzy over SPACs may be cooling? There’s been huge hype in recent times around SPACs — ‘special-purpose acquisition companies’ that offer an alternative way for businesses to go public without the usual ‘cumbersome’ IPO process. The Economist reports that in the first 4 months of this year, $100bn was raised through SPACs and 84 companies have announced they will float via SPAC mergers so far in 2021, versus 123 using IPOs. But there are signs that the market is becoming more discerning with dropping share prices and increasing short interest in SPACs. More on this here.
🎤 Clubhouse downloads dropped off a cliff — from 9.6m in Feb to 2.7m in March! Uh oh. We shared a ‘Clubhouse downfall’ prediction thread in last month’s AirMail — could it be coming true already? We nervously await the April numbers… 😬 If you’re still active on Clubhouse, follow us @airtreevc 😇
Major Funding Rounds 💰
DocsCorp, a PDF and documentation software tool, sold for $102m
Halter, a Kiwi agtech startup, raised NZ$32m
Superhero, a share-trading and superannuation startup, raised $25m
Lumary, a healthtech startup, raised $17m
Neara, a utilities infrastructure startup, raised $7.25m
Enboarder, a HR tech startup, raised $6.6m
Cyble, a cyber intelligence firm, raised $4m
Urban Ethos, an eco-friendly household goods retailer, raised $3.8m
Coinstash, a crypto currency startup, raised $2.8m
Rosemary, a digital health clinic, raised $2.4m
Rendr, a delivery platform, raised $2.1m
Marketplacer, an online marketplace technology platform, raised undisclosed millions from Woolworths’ W23 fund
DiviPay, an expense management platform, raised $1.7m
Batch Brewing Co., a craft beer business, raised $1.5m
Payable, a bill payments startup, raised $1m
ESN Cleer, a medtech startup, raised $700k
Unhedged, a robo-advisor fintech, raised $500k
Vloggi, a video startup, raised $500k
Book An Artist, the Aussie ‘Airbnb of artists’, raised $400k
Good Empire, a gamified special media platform, raised $250k
Vantari VR, a virtual reality healthtech startup, raised $131k
Did we miss your raise? Want your yet-to-be-announced raise featured in next month’s newsletter? Let us know: community@airtree.vc
Love For The AirTree Fam 💕
⚖️ The gig is up: it’s time to rethink employment: Ben from Employment Hero shared his insights on the employment rights of gig economy workers and the ‘not-so-modern’ awards system with the Australian.
🤩 The Canva team has finally launched the Real Time Collaboration feature!! And their Technology Wrangler David Hearnden can finally get a haircut!
💸 Linktree has launched ‘Commerce Links’ that makes it easier for creators to take payments via Square.
🗞 What does the Coinbase IPO mean for the crypto & blockchain community in Australia? Our Partners John & James share their thoughts with The Age here and here.
Community Bulletin 📌
🍷Southstart is kicking off next week! From 3 May — 6 May, the conference will ‘gather leading national and global voices to break down societal barriers and help foster the networks, skills and knowledge required to grow exponentially’. Our Principal Elicia will be speaking on ‘The Investor Process’ panel.
🚀 Applications are now open for the 2021 Lift Off Awards, brought to you by YBF. This year, the awards will go beyond fintech to include a number of additional tech verticals, all underpinned by diversity. More info here.
🏆 Massive congratulations to all the winners of the Women in AI Awards! We’ve offered up mentoring as a prize and can’t wait to get to know the winners Jamila, Michelle and Fiona.
♻️ Elon Musk is offering $130m in prize money for carbon-negative tech. The 4 year challenge will run till Earth Day 2025 and the initial batch of prize money will be awarded to student teams in November 2021. The competition is open to teams or individuals from all over the world and the full competition guidelines are available here.
💰 $10 million in grant funding up for grabs for regtech innovation: under the latest round of the Business Research and Innovation Initiative (BRII), successful applicants will be eligible for grants of up to $100k to develop their ideas and test feasibility over three months. Applications close 3 June.
Jobs Jobs Jobs! 🇦🇺🇳🇿
🩺 HotDoc, Australia’s largest and most trusted patient engagement platform, is looking for a Head of Growth
💡Brighte, Australia’s leading point of sale finance platform for solar, batteries & home improvements, is looking for a Head of Sales
👗 GlamCorner, the fashion tech company creating an endless online wardrobe, is looking for a SEO Lead
We also have companies looking for a Head of People and Culture and Blockchain Engineers. Please email Andrew for details on andrew@airtree.vc
🌲 And we have 4 roles up for grabs at AirTree too!
We’re looking for a Management Accountant , an Accounts Payable Officer, an Investor Relations Mat-Leave Cover and a Business Operations Analyst
Is your startup hiring? 🚀 Add your jobs here.
Say Hi to Team AirTree! 👋
5th May — Elicia is speaking at ‘The Investor Process’ panel at Southstart
5th May — Craig is giving the Keynote fireside with Chris Williams at Venture Down Under 2021
14 May — Rich is speaking at the UTS Startups x Fishburners Pitch Night. Register here.
Throughout May — Mel is offering mentoring hours with the Sydney Startup Hub
What we’re reading & listening to 👂
🧬 The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race — Walter Isaacson
Walter Isaacson is well known as the bestselling author of the Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs biographies. He’s now back to tell the extraordinary life story of Jennifer Doudna, 2020 Nobel Prize winner for her pioneering work in CRISPR gene editing which is powering a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies.
🎤 Crypto, an Oral Essay — the a16z Podcast
Everything you need to know about crypto in 38 minutes. This special episode of a16z’s podcast presents an audio history: ‘In brief segments, we’ll take you from the ground up — from the basics, to the most current developments, and beyond that to a look at what we might see in the future.’
